January 4 / Psalm 4

Psalm 4

One of my Study Bibles labeled this Psalm as a “lament” – a crying out to God in a time of grief or sorrow. Today it seems that David is troubled over those Israelites who are abandoning God, possibly seeking favor from other gods of the surrounding nations. Interestingly, we just read in the past few months from Paul, Peter, and John about false teachers in the young Christian church who were espousing wrong doctrine and leading followers astray. As John S. said two days ago, those old problems never go away! They just show up in a new context.

I was struck by David’s confidence in the first verse. In three sentences he asks for God’s help; he reminds God of help that he has received in the past; and he begins to turn his attention to his current need. But surprisingly, as we read on, David’s new need, his new problem is not within his own life – it is with his fellow Israelites and their lack of confidence in God working in their lives.

The failure on the part of the Israelites in today’s Psalm may be weather or pest events leading to a poor harvest, since David suggests that that these folks are leading happy lives “when their grain and wine abound” (v. 7). So we can take a lesson from David: are we truly sorrowful when members of our body are hurting? Are we praying diligently for those in need of healing, for those who have lost loved ones, for those in financial need, for an end to this pandemic, or most relevant for me, friends and loved ones who don’t know the Lord and are actively rejecting Him? Our Archbishop continually exhorts us to pray. I fail at that and I appreciate His ongoing reminders. We need to be a praying people!

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4 Comments

  1. When I read this psalm, it seems like a dialog between David and God, with vss. 2 and 4 (before the Selahs) being what God is saying to David. But I don’t see any reference to this in my study Bible. This interpretation seems more pronounced in the KJV, the NKJV, and the NIV. The NASB could easily be read either way, and the NLT to me does not support this.

    1. Good observation, Katey, especially the possibility that verse 2 is God speaking. But it could also easily be David speaking to his fellow Israelites. I expect that some translations have “my” capitalized – further supporting your observation. These different translations can often lead to very different interpretations!

    2. That’s an interesting perspective, Katey, and worth thinking about. You’ve uncovered one of the challenges of the Psalms: it is not always clear who is speaking and therefore how to interpret the message. Commentaries and translators’ notes can be helpful in that regard, along with more subtle hints like capitalization of pronouns, as Fred has pointed out. In this case, the “pronoun capitalization test” would argue against having God as the speaker for verse 2 (at least), as the KJV does not capitalize “my”. But even so we must always recognize that such indicators are just the translators’ interpretation — and just as commentaries and notes are not themselves Scripture, neither is such capitalization (or lack thereof).

      My own perspective is that in vv. 2-5 David is addressing (i.e., warning and advising) his opponents (or the ungodly or those who are otherwise in danger of going the wrong direction). But that is just my perspective, and it’s helpful to see things a bit differently sometimes, so thanks for speaking up.

  2. The bit of this Psalm that tends to challenge me is “Be angry” in verse 4. According to various commentators, it is questionable as to whether “Be angry” is the best translation of the Hebrew. Alternatives are “Tremble” or “Fear” or “Be in awe”. But the Greek Septuagint says “Be angry”, and that is what Paul quotes in Ephesians 4:26, so I think we need to wrestle with it. We can’t see it in isolation, though; we also need to consider the rest of the sentence: “…and do not sin.

    Given the full context of the rest of Psalm 4, my take is that David is saying, “Go ahead and recognize your natural emotion of anger. Go ahead and even let God know about your anger, because He can handle it. But… Recognize that your anger is dangerous and be very careful that you don’t act in your anger. Do not proceed from feelings of anger to acts of anger that manifest sin. That is, take a time out and cool off before you act.” That’s what I get from “ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent” (v. 4) along with Paul’s “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” (Eph. 4:26)

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